UPDATE: Sony has gone back on this, keeping the store open, so we can keep buying games, but it looks like no new games will be published (in the EU certainly).
Original story:
After a week of rumours, here's the grim official word from Sony.. "We are closing PlayStation Store on PlayStation 3 on 2 July 2021 and on PlayStation Vita devices on 27 August 2021. Additionally, the remaining purchase functionality for PlayStation Portable will also retire on 2 July 2021.
After thoughtful consideration, we decided to make these changes in an effort to focus our resources for PlayStation Store on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, which will enable us to enhance the customer experience even further. We thank you for your support on these platforms throughout the years."
The short version...
"You will no longer be able to purchase PS3, PS Vita and PSP digital content, including games and video content. You will also no longer be able to make in-game purchases through games on PS3, PS Vita and PSP."
Here's the list of some 2,000 games across all formats that will vanish. That includes around 630 digital-only Vita games and 260 PS1-era classics plus some PSP titles. Among them are legends like TxK, Super Stardust Delta, and PSP curios including Black Rock Shooter and Patchwork Heroes.
For most of us on Vita Island, here's the key part..
What about content you already own?
• You will still be able to download your owned PS3, PS Vita, and PSP content, including games and video content.
• You can download your owned content onto your PS3, PS Vita, or PSP by accessing the Download List on the respective device.
• You will still be able to re-download and play game titles you have claimed through PlayStation Plus as long as you remain a member of the service.
Bad vibes among the community
So, it is not total cancel culture, yet - give it a year or two more and I'm pretty sure those features will be turned off too. However, for those buying a new Vita and despite Sony's fuck-you attitude there are still plenty turning up on my feed every week, it is very bad news unless they go all-physical at costs that are about to explode.
The same goes for Japan too, slashing one of the greatest game archives on the planet, with loads of titles unique to them, even familiar ones like my favourite shmup Raiden that we should have access to!
Also, how does this support the developers that spent time building up a following, to whom a few sales are important? Yes, larger publishers can re-release their games on newer platforms, contracting the work out to developers who need the income, but so many smaller devs don't have the time or money.
The big deal to me is Sony has confirmed the digital shuttering of 20 years worth of gaming, making so much inaccessible to the large not-throwing-our-old-systems away culture. A culture that, to me, is what real gaming is all about, not the latest PS5 cookie-cutter shooter with ray-tracing and crap AI (still) as big selling points.
And, in a world where developers still create for the Spectrum, C64, Mega Drive and pretty much every other platform. Ripping out the infrastructure to create for the Vita, something many devs still love and are working for in particular rates as the dumbest type of folly. Cases in point:
Finally, Sony can now never condemn piracy because very soon, that will be the only way to acquire a huge number of historic first and third-party titles! A situation that Sony does not need to create but will out of pure corporate greed and penny pinching.
And for bonus points, look at the love Xbox and Nintendo sometimes put into their back catalogue, leaves Sony several laps behind!
Anyway, I'm back off to play Chrono Trigger again, before Sony send the bailiffs around!
